Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Davis

Title of entry: UC Davis Virtual Picnic Day Parade 2021

About this entry: Since it began in 1909, UC Davis’ Picnic Day parade is an event that the UC Davis community excitedly awaits each year. UC Davis’ Give Day, a 48-hour fundraising event led by the Annual and Special Gifts (ASGP) team, is concurrent with Picnic Day and therefore has had a large presence in its parade since 2017.

However, when the pandemic began in 2020—less than a month before Picnic Day—campus groups did not have time to develop a virtual alternative to the parade. So when Picnic Day was scheduled to be virtual again in 2021, ASGP decided to create a virtual Picnic Day parade that people could enjoy remotely.

This submission outlines our methods for scripting, filming, and producing a virtual Picnic Day parade that provided the campus community with a needed sense of tradition during one of the most tumultuous periods in recent history.

The debut of our virtual Picnic Day parade received widespread positive feedback. It was featured on UC Davis’ Picnic Day website and shared by UC Davis’ official Facebook page, where the video received 6,800 views and 21 shares. All of the 13 comments we received stated how grateful people were that we gave them a way to engage in Aggie traditions safely at home. We also shared it with more than 9,490 households via our Give Day Launch email, which had a 35% open rate and 2% click-through rate, both above industry standards. It also received 2,190 views on YouTube.